GDT #37: Blues @ Avs | 8:00 pm CT | BSMW, 101 ESPN

[theohall]

Schenn seems gassed and frustrated at the same time. The penalty screamed of despair.

Though looking at the replay, it seems that was a really weak call and no slash whatsoever. Since when is the lone criteria for the slash is whether the stick breaks?

I'm going to repost this, because... on Friday night, Clifford had his stick literally slashed out of his hands with a wicked 2-hand slash. Clifford, rightfully, raises his arms for the call. You can hear Kosari on the broadcast saying "the sticks not broken." That's the problem with the "new breed" of officials only calling slashes when sticks break, not whether or not a slash actually occurred. It's especially egregious on Kosari's part considering how far away he was from the play and there wasn't even a slashing motion to be seen.

[flyingnote38]

the d zone turn over leading to spirit crushing last minute goal was easy to see coming, just thought it would be preceded by "Hoffman fails to clear the zone" as happened 4 times in the last 2 minutes, but not from O'Reilly

at least we still hold our first round pick this year

[theohall]

the d zone turn over leading to spirit crushing last minute goal was easy to see coming, just thought it would be preceded by "Hoffman fails to clear the zone" as happened 4 times in the last 2 minutes, but not from O'Reilly

at least we still hold our first round pick this year

Part of this is Hoffman and the other part is teams have figured out how the Blues like to move the puck out of their own zone and are taking that away. Vegas and Colorado have both been exceptional at taking this away - even just basic clearing attempts. The Blues rarely use the center of the ice, because turnovers in center ice are bad, and the good teams, like Vegas and Colorado are taking away the boards. Just watch how many times the Blues try to go straight up the wall with little success.

Pile on the Blues forwards pulling the "let's wait beyond center ice while stationary for a 100+' pass" and it's a recipe for disaster. You know which line was really good at getting the puck up ice - Clifford, Thomas and Kyrou. They all worked back together defensively. They all skated up ice together, and they did their best to support each other in all 3 zones. ROR, Tank, and Schwartz were okay doing this, but not as good as the youngsters. Perron and Hoffman were particularly bad in this one. Perron barely came back at all on defense and it showed. Perron was fine on the power play, but 5-on-5 he was a non-factor, which isn't normal. Schenn was the only one on that line playing a 200' game.